This invention is related to interlocking mechanisms between software and hardware, and more particularly, to interlocking use of a bar code scanner with a software interface.
The technological advances in the fabrication of smaller integrated circuits have resulted in controllers and microprocessors being implemented in a wide variety of applications, where in the past such implementations have been considered impossible or very expensive. The introduction of these xe2x80x9csmartxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cintelligentxe2x80x9d embodiments have a significant impact on commercial ventures producing such products. Therefore, it becomes important to the manufacturer of the product to exercise control over the nature, origin and/or quality of software with which will be used. This protects the use of such products from competitive intrusion, by ensuring that such products can only be used under certain circumstances.
A prime example of this philosophy being put into action is evident in the home video game industry. Nintendo Co., Ltd., a prominent vendor of such systems protects its place in this very competitive area of the market by ensuring that only its game modules will work with its gaming consoles. Unauthorized third-party vendors are prevented from freely producing modules that work with Nintendo""s gaming consoles, not only legally by contracts and licensing agreements, but also technically by secure handshaking protocols imposed between the modules and the console. This way, Nintendo protects its long-term viability and survival in the gaming market. Such a protection mechanism also reduces the number of consumer complaints presented to a manufacturer making such products. Those products which have been tested for compatibility are guaranteed to work, and those products which have not, are likely to cause consumer discontent due to operational failures and the like.
A device becoming more prominent in the marketplace is the bar code scanner. Scanners come in a variety of configurations from standalone pens to input devices which connect to computer ports through an interface device called a xe2x80x9cwedge,xe2x80x9d and in some implementations, hand-held telecommunication devices. Advances in bar code technology are expanding the amount of information which can be encoded in the bar code, making the scanner an even more important for facilitating many different types of operations. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a scanner which is interlocked with a particular piece of software to ensure that misuse is prevented, and that third-party vendors cannot illegally reproduce the system causing the owner of such a system lost revenue.
The present invention disclosed and claimed herein, in one aspect thereof, comprises a method for controlling a scanner with a software interface. A scanner is provided which is operable to read scannable information. The scanner is connected to a computer which operates the software interface for processing the scannable information. An encrypted handshaking operation is performed between the software interface and the scanner prior to allowing the scanner to become operable to read the scannable information.